Board of Directors

“Open” vs “Executive Session” Meetings of an HOA’s Board of Directors Perhaps because homeowners associations are often viewed and characterized as private governments or quasi-public bodies, most meetings of the board of directors of a homeowners association are required to be open to attendance by the association’s members and state ...
Read More

8 Steps HOA Boards Can Take to Minimize the Risk of Fraud & Embezzlement Because they rely heavily on volunteer homeowners with varying background experience and limited time that is devoted to providing services as a director, Homeowners Associations are extremely vulnerable to financial damage as a result of criminal ...
Read More

An Effective Strategy for Dealing with "Out-of-Control" Board Members It is not uncommon for homeowners associations to have certain volunteer members that appear to have control over the entire operations of their homeowners association. This typically occurs when such members have been elected to the board of directors year after ...
Read More

Arizona Court Says HOA Cannot Exclude Director from Executive Session Meetings In this case, the board of directors of a homeowners association passed a motion to exclude a fellow board member who had been elected to the board by the homeowners from attending the board’s executive session meetings. Such action ...
Read More

Association Member Rights to Speak at Board of Director Meetings The rules pertaining to a homeowner association member’s rights to speak at meetings of the Association’s board of directors will be defined by the laws of the state where the association is located and the provisions contained in the association’s ...
Read More

Association Member's Attorney Properly Excluded from Board of Directors Meeting A California Fourth Appellate District Court ruled that a homeowners association properly excluded a member’s attorney from a meeting of the association’s board of directors. After the association’s board of directors refused to allow a member’s attorney to attend a ...
Read More

CA Ct. Says Protections of “Business Judgment Rule” Require Showing of Reasonable Diligence This case involved an action by a homeowners association (“Association”) against an individual homeowner and pertains to claims relating to actions that she took while serving as an officer and director of Association. Association alleged that the ...
Read More

Unpublished California Appellate Court decision (entered April 2, 2014): This case involved an action by an owner against the Association and individual members of the Association’s board of directors based on claims of negligence and breach of fiduciary duties. The trial court sustained demurrers of the individual defendants without leave ...
Read More

Colorado Ct. Says HOA Can be Enjoined From Holding Special Board Meetings Without Proper Notice In this case, the owners of several separate interests within a common interest community sought injunctive relief from the court in an effort to enjoin the homeowners association from conducting special meetings of the board ...
Read More

Dealing With Board Members Who Don’t Play by the Rules Homeowners associations that govern condominiums and other common interest communities function through the efforts of volunteer directors, officers, management agents, and employees. The officers, management agents and employees play key roles in the operations of a homeowners association, but the ...
Read More

Directors’ Duty to Maintain Common Areas Requires Performing Deferred Maintenance A fundamental duty of a homeowners association’s board of directors is the duty to maintain the association’s common areas. Notwithstanding said duty, a frequently encountered issue within homeowners associations pertains to the failure on the part of the association’s directors ...
Read More

Disclosing Information about Litigation to Association Members A common issue that is addressed in homeowners associations concerns the duty of an association’s board of directors to disclose information about existing and threatened lawsuits that involve the association to members of the association. Some treat information concerning lawsuits as “confidential” information ...
Read More

Does Your HOA Have Established Qualifications for Those Who Serve as Directors? It is commonplace for the governing documents of a homeowners association to have provisions that establish qualifications for those who serve on the association’s board of directors. The qualifications for serving on an association’s board would generally be ...
Read More

Duties of Homeowners Association Directors Directors of community associations, like directors of other nonprofit corporations, are not guarantors of the success of the association and are not typically liable for mere mistakes in judgment. Courts require only that directors act as ordinary, prudent people and do not hold them to ...
Read More

Effective Use of an Attorney by HOA Boards The board of directors of a homeowners association is responsible for properly managing the association’s business. In the real world, the people who are vested with the responsibility for making the decisions on behalf of a homeowners association are a diversified group ...
Read More